My experience in Bethlehem
Mac and I made the drive down to Bethlehem, enjoying the rolling hills of I-81 through NY State (which was completely infested with cops, like nothing I have ever seen in my life) and into PA, which was strangely void of the heavy police presence. I missed a turn that added about a hour of drive time, but all was well. We pigged out at Jimmy Johns sandwich shop, twice, as we waited for the club to open.
Open Mat on Friday night was seriously worth the drive all by itself. I had so many great rolls with friendly people. I was very happy with my performance, feeling like a million bucks all night, rolling with guys that ranged from 4 month whitebelts to Pro MMA fighters. Then John Holland got a hold of me, and beasted me into the ground. It was a rush. His transitions and positional control was top notch, and his attacks were chained together smoothly, forcing me to defend defend defend - tap. Slap, bump, roll, do it again. It was awesome. It would have been the highlight on the night for me, but a little later on master Eddie looked at me and said "Let's go, Kurz!"
Sheeeeeeeit, I actually get to roll with Master Eddie?! I don't get star struck by celebrity status by ANYONE, but the level of respect I have for Eddie is basically unparalleled. I love and respect pioneers and people who show unorthodox ingenuity and creativity. In my world, Eddie is to Jiu Jitsu what Scott Byerly is to Wakeboarding: The King of Style, smoothest brother in the business, consistent and inspiring, the person to emulate.
It was a seriously awesome experience. He let me play, gave me room to try things, I was using his own system to roll with him, whipping up to electric sweep (Which he stopped before the sweep) and more. It was so fun man. I tried attacking his turtle into truck, but he stuffed all my truck transitions. He was just chillin, letting me have fun trying things. He only tapped me a few times when I made retarded mistakes and gave him a position I shouldn't have, and then he explained where I went wrong.
Near the end of the match, he got top side control and I felt him moving around me, staying heavy on my shoulder and I recalled asking him in the "Q & A thread" what his go-to submission is from top side control... He said the Can Crusher. I was laying there thinking "Shit he is doing the can crusher, but it doesn't feel too tight yet. Still doesn't feel too tight. No, I can resist this. No prob... No prob... Holy shit I better tap!!"
His pressure was so smooth that it didn't feel like pressure. I literally almost went out before I realized it was on deep enough to be a threat. It blew my mind. Thanks Eddie!
After the rolling, it was back to the Finishers Fight house, thanks to Zach Maslany and John Michael Holland and their student and friend Dan Spyridon, we had a roof over our head and a couch to crash on at the Finishers MMA Fighter house. (Which is a nice, big, clean house) These guys know how to roll. We all showered up and sat around chillin with Eddie, everyone trading stories and listening to whatever Eddie wanted to tell us about. Sitting with him is like sitting with a comedian half the time. Seriously funny stories. We listened as he talked about stuff that only people in the loop know, enjoying the chance to hang out, because typically Eddie is way too busy to hang out for a weekend. Zog and one of his students came over to hang out too. We watched some super crazy documentary called "The Last Days" about a crack-addicted Rockstar from the band Pentagram.
The seminar was killer. It was awesome. Eddie was going to originally run a leglock seminar, but at the last minute he changed his mind, and I for one and SUPER glad he did. He showed us his giant-slayer tactics. The "go to" paths he takes when he rolls with guys that outweigh him by x-amount of pounds. The big guys that burst out of the standard rubbergaurd path. I will let him talk about the techniques because that is not my place. Some of it is newly developed and I am sure it will be covered on MTS. After the seminar was over, people were still hanging around, and Eddie, Zog and Yokel ended up going over some leglock fundamentals, allowing me to film it, which was cool to see as well.
I got to meet a lot of people that I was already friends with on the internet. Megan Erber and her man VJ, for example. Sean Pitts showed me his favorite setup for a calf slicer and a bottom halfguard baseball bat choke in the Gi that is awesome. Kevin Gibbs tweaked my Guillotine and helped me understand the pretzel grip, and I noticed my percentages were already going up last night in class with the guillotine. John Michael Holland showed me his version of the short choke, which I already new but didn't do it quite as nicely.
The core group of us went out for some grub and then hit the beer and liquor stores, in preparation for a night of Metamoris 4 at the Finishers fight house. We had some drinks, chatted it up, a lot of their friends dropped by to hang out and watch the matches, it was sick. I drank a good portion of Gin (And so did John Holland, lol).
Woke up at 8 and hit the road around 10am, making it home in about 9 hours.
All in all it was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time. The 10P love is evident when people are coming from all over the place and we are all welcomed with open arms. The 10P community seems to radiate solidarity.
Thank you Finishers, for an amazing weekend.
EDITED -
Just wanted to add that the only reason we could pull this trip off was due to the generousity of Zach, JM and Dan, providing a place to crash. Being a family man with the bills that go along with it, there was no way I could have done it if I had to pay for a hotel and all that stuff. Thanks guys. Mi casa es su casa.
END EDIT
Side story:
I throw knives and hatchets as a hobby, and a bunch of my friends do too. KNowing I was headed to the States, I thought it was a good opportunity to stock up on some gear, I pay $65 dollars for hatchets in Canada and only $20 in the USA via budk.com. So my boddy and I orderedalmost $500 dollars worth of Axes, knives and I bought a new Hanwei zatoichi sword (Damascus steel, folded over 2000 times).
I talked to Zach about having it delivered so when I come down I can just bring it home. "No prob. Have it shipped to the club". Awesome! So when we arrived in Bethlehem and pulled into the strip mall that Finishers is in, I walk up to the door and see my UPS delivery notification stuck to the window on the door. OMG, I missed the UPS guy, it's Friday, I live in Canada nine hours away, and I can't even fucking CALL them because if I turn my phone on it will cost me almost 2 bucks a minute just in roaming fees!
I was instantly stressed, thinking now that I was going to have to stay there until the UPS office opened on Monday to get my package. Then I asked the lovely (and cute) girls working at Jimmy Johns if I could make a call on the phone. This nice girl Dana lets me use her cel. I call UPS. I explain that I need to get the package TODAY because I live in Canada and will not be able to get it after today. She says "Give me your number. I have to call the distro center and then they will call you back and tell you the time and place you can pick it up."
"I don't have a number you can reach me at"
"I need one"
Dana allows me to give them her number. (Angel)
The UPS woman says "Make sure you have your Pennsylvania State Federal ID to pick up the package"
"I'm Canadian"
"Sir, they won't give you the package unless you have Pennsylvania State Federal ID"
Now I am shitting bricks, thinking that even if I go there, they aren't going to release the package to me.
They call about a half hour later. Dana comes over to me and says "You can pick it up any time between 7 and 8." (It was 6:45)
"Great! where?"
"Uhhh....."
"NOOOOOooooooo...."
So I call again, and explain that I need to know where to go to get the package. She pulls up the nearest location and it's about 6 miles away, thank God. Mac and I agree to head over there and get my goods. We jump in the car, and just as I am about to leave the parking lot, what do I see?
An empty UPS truck, parked right outside of Finishers MMA. I thought "There is NO WAY that there is more than one UPS truck delivering to addresses on this route."
I parked in front of him and blocked him in and waited for the driver. This guy comes back to the truck with a little box and sure enough, it was him. He had my package on the truck. I started telling him how happy I was to see him and explained how I was just about to go to the depot to pick it up from there. Funniest part is, it was his first day on the job. He had passed this route hours ago, and missed that delivery because it was an apartment upstairs above the MMA club and I couldn't find the address. So hours later he had to come back.
Not only that, but he was so messed up with it being his first day, that he still had about 3 hours worth of deliveries to drop off, so even if I left and went to the depot, I would have never seen the guy till 10PM and would have missed the open mat!
I buddied up with him and talked about martial arts (He is into TMA's) and talked his ear off while he dug my (almost) $500 dollars worth of toys out of his delivery truck. I struggled to keep a straight face as he pronounced his R's like W's just Elmer Fud. He handed me the box and asked me to sign his electronic tablet, and never asked me for ID.
PHEW! It seems Mac and I ate just the right amount of sandwiches for the timing to be perfect. If I had have left 5 minutes earlier OR Later, I would have missed the guy completely.
